


Colour Me In Love

by Rionaa



Category: Captain America - All Media Types, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Aura Seers, Fluff, M/M, Misunderstandings, Multi, Poly Relationship, The Winter Soldier programme had unexpected side effects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-08
Packaged: 2018-08-13 22:57:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,163
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7989229
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rionaa/pseuds/Rionaa
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes the colours were the only bright thing in the Winter Soldier's existence. He held onto them, he reveled in the violet fear that his handlers displayed. It meant that he had at least a little power.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Colour Me In Love

When Bucky was first brought to Avengers Tower, he was almost silent, almost a recluse, never spending more than a few minutes in a room with another person, never speaking unless it was absolutely necessary. He knew that Steve was hurt by this, but he couldn't bring himself to care. Actually, that was a lie. He cared enormously. What he couldn't do was change. He couldn't become the man that Steve had known. His memories of his former self were patchy at best, sometimes coming regularly, sometimes he would go for days, weeks, without any new information. What he did know, however, was that he was not that man.

Hydra had changed him. And not just physically, not just psychologically, but also psychically. Now, whenever he looked at a person, Bucky could see their aura.

An aura was the space around a person's body. Bucky couldn't really call it the air, because he wasn't sure if it even was air. Light would be a better word. And every aura glowed. They glowed with a colour, and even if he couldn't put a precise name to most of the colours, he always knew exactly what they meant. 

He couldn't see his own aura, but that was the only exception. He often wished that he could, it would make understanding himself so much easier. He had never told anyone about his new ability, scared that someone would try to take it away. It was the only piece of happiness, of colour in his existence as the Winter Soldier.

People's auras changed all the time, displaying their feelings, their emotions. Bucky noticed how most of their auras showed fear around him. It made him sad. There were only two people who were different. Steve's aura was invariably filled with sorrow and longing, for a friendship that he would never quite regain. And there was something else that Bucky could never quite put his finger on, a colour that he had never seen directed towards him. The other person who never showed fear towards him was Tony Stark. 

At first, his aura was filled with bright, angry red whenever the man was around Bucky. Tony never expressed it though. If Bucky hadn't been able to see his aura, he would never have known Tony's feelings. He went out of his way to make things up to Stark, but he knew that nothing he could ever do would make up for the death of his family. Yet somehow, over time, the anger slowly bled away, and as Bucky spent more and more time with Tony, something else grew in its place. And there it was again, that unplaced colour. Bucky had no name for it, if he had to, he would say it was a kind of... mauve? As for what it meant, could it - no. 

Bucky spent a lot of time in Tony's lab, Stark was always calling him down for upgrades on the arm, or for some wacky new nugget of modern knowledge which he just HAD to impart to Bucky right that second. Not that Bucky minded. He actually quite enjoyed spending time with the mechanic. The man kept up an almost constant stream of chatter almost as he breathed, constantly explaining how things moved, how they worked, where things came from. At first, Bucky had found it alarming, almost irritating, but lately he'd begun to take comfort in it. 

One night, Bucky woke up screaming, after an especially vivid nightmare. He had been forced to kill someone, a man, a stranger, really, and he did it, mercilessly beating the man with his metal fist, and only when the man lay bleeding, dying on the ground at his feet, did he see that it was Steve.

He sat up, tears wet on his cheeks, his ears still ringing with the echo of his scream. He thrashed around in the sweat soaked sheets, unable to get free, and finally landed on the floor, his legs still tangled. Breathing hard, he scrambled backwards, away from the heap of cloth and into the corner of the room, where he sat, huddled, his arms wrapped tightly around his torso.

"Sergeant Barnes?" 

"JARVIS..."

"Sir has requested your presence in the workshop, now or at your convenience." The AI sounded slightly concerned, almost paternal, if that was possible.

Bucky drew a deep breath and pulled himself to his feet. He was awake now anyway, might as well find out what Tony wanted.

When he got down to the workshop, Tony beamed at him, and immediately launched into a monologue about about some new feature he had come up with for Bucky's arm, which "you absolutely have to have, it'll improve your dexterity by at least 36%!" And Bucky grinned back and nodded, soaking in the stream of talking, and it didn't escape his notice that Tony's aura was full of concern.

Steve accompanied Bucky on his trips to Tony's workshop more often than not. He had told Bucky about his and Tony's less than smooth start, but now the two of them acted like old friends, which Bucky supposed, in a way, they kind of were. Steve and Tony had known each other for much longer than Bucky had been living in the tower, and it showed in the easy back and forth banter the two of them kept up, the playful shoves, and how comfortable they were with each other. Tony would spread himself across Steve's lap on the sofa, reach right over his personal space to grab something that Steve could easily have passed to him, and on one memorable occasion, used him as a ladder to reach something on top of one of the cabinets in the workshop. Bucky could see how close they were even without their auras making it plain.

In fact, their auras showed much more than their closeness. Bucky would often catch Steve staring at Tony while he worked, his aura pulsing with an almost painful brightness. Tony would do the same, often while Steve was deep in thought, or sketching in his notepad, his aura glowing with an intensity only paralleled by Steve's.

Bucky watched this spectacular light show with a strange ache in his chest. He was so happy that Steve finally had someone with whom he might be happy.

One day, the three of them were in the workshop, Steve sitting quietly in the corner, sketching, Tony fiddling with Bucky's shoulder, and Bucky sitting on a stool, listening to Tony's stream of technobabble. 

"So, I read that homosexuality is legal now." Bucky stated. Tony stopped tinkering and withdrew from Bucky's arm, putting down his screwdriver and looking at him with a calculating gaze.

"Yeah, it has been for a while." He said eventually. 

Steve looked up from his sketch, put down his pencil and got to his feet, stretching his back slightly. "Why you asking, Buck?"

Bucky looked at him, then away. "I just- I've been-" he hesitated then looked down at the floor.

Tony's eyes went wide, and he looked at Steve, and then back to Bucky. "This is a totally accepting space, neither of us is going to judge you whatever you're about to say."

"Then why do you act so hypocritical!" Bucky burst out. Tony and Steve exchanged a look of confusion. "You say it's okay to be homosexual but you don't act on it! Anyone can see that the pair of you are madly in love!" He prayed that that part was true, maybe it wasn't so obvious to everyone else.

Tony's eyebrows shot up his forehead, and Steve gaped a little in surprise. "Bucky-" Steve started, but was interrupted by Tony.

"We already know that, Buckster!"

"I- what?" Bucky looked from one to the other in confusion, "But, but you're always so secretive around each other. I've never seen you two be a couple together, I never-" suddenly he whirled to face Steve, "and you never told me!"

Steve had the grace to look ashamed. "We-" at a glare from Tony, he changed tack. "I didn't think you were ready. I-" another pointed look, "we were going to tell you at some point, but I didn't want to overwhelm you. I also didn't - didn't know if you'd be okay with it."

"Of course I'm okay with it! I've been having to put up with watching the two of you gaze longingly at one another ever since I got here! Besides which, I'd hardly have a leg to stand on, I like fellas as well, ya punk!"

Both Tony and Steve stared at him for a moment, temporarily speechless.

"Why didn't you say something?" 

"Well it's like you said," Bucky huffed out a small, sardonic laugh, "didn't know what you'd say."

"Wait, hold up," Tony said, holding up a hand to silence the pair of them, "you mean that all this time I've been missing out on kisses and great sex with my boyfriend, AND with this hot piece of ass?"

Steve made an aborted head motion to Tony, and Bucky stared at him in confusion. "I don't understand...?"

"Me and Capsicle have been trying to hit on you for the past forever, but your dumb ass has been too busy brooding to notice!"

Steve grinned apologetically, "He was more subtle when he was trying to get me into bed with him and that culminated with a flypast of his suits carrying a sign in the colours of the American flag!"

"What did the sign say?" Bucky asked, curiously.

Tony coughed and - could it be true? - blushed a little. "That's not important."

Steve nodded hastily in agreement. "Tony's right, the point is, me and Tony would like to take you on a date. Maybe. If - just if you want to. If you don't, that's-"

"Shaddup, punk. Of course I'll go on a date with you." Tony cheered and Steve looked relieved, "But only if Tony doesn't get to pick the date!"

"Hey!" Tony looked incensed, but Bucky just grinned.

"So what was it that gave us away?" Steve asked, curiously, over his double cheeseburger a few hours later.

"Um, it was just, you know, the way you looked at each other?" Bucky gestured vaguely and shoved a couple more fries in his mouth.

"Like what?"

"When you were drawing, or when Tony was doing - anything, you'd just - look..." He trailed off, then took another slurp of his milkshake.

"Well I kind of have to look at him, otherwise how would I be able to draw him?" Steve pointed out.

"Doing anything? I do a lot of things, Buckaroo, you're gonna have to be a little more specific."

Bucky's eyes widened. They must know something! He had never told anyone, he couldn't - but why not? This was Steve, his best friend, and Tony, hadn't he proved himself more than trustworthy? And now they were both what? His boyfriends? He made a mental note to ask.

Then he took a deep breath. "It's because I could see it."

"Yeah, but how? I'm just curious, I thought we hid it pretty well."

"No, not the acting, I could... I can see it. It's-" he hesitated, "kind of pinkish? Quite a deep, reddish pink though."

Suddenly, he put down his burger and gripped the edge of the table. 

"Bucky? Are you okay? What's wrong?"

There it was. Overlaid by foggy, swirling concern, a muddy, bluish green, but still, unmistakably, there. That same reddish pink, mauve, he had said, but perhaps it was closer to red, exactly as he had just described it, there was no other word for it, but love.

"Oh my god." He whispered, then looked up into Steve's face, so full of worry. Tony's face echoed the sentiment, the two perfectly in tune, right down to the colours emanating from their auras. Bucky leaned forward and captured Tony's lips in a kiss. Tony's eyes widened, but he kissed back passionately, surprise, pleasure, happiness, filling his aura. Bucky pulled away after a long moment, then pulled Steve in for a kiss as well. Steve's kiss was softer, more tender but somehow just the same, and the same colours of pleasure and joy surrounded him for a moment.

When Bucky sat back and looked at them, they both stared back, smiling, slightly dazed. Then, he got to his feet. "Let's go home. I have something that I need to tell you."

Bucky explained everything he knew about his ability on the walk home. Tony and Steve said nothing the entire time, simply walking on either side of him, Steve holding his flesh hand, Tony his metal one. When he was finished, they pressed a kiss to his cheek. Steve thanked him for feeling able to tell them about it. Tony said that he had questions, but maybe, just this once, they could wait for the morning.

That night, the three of them made colours Bucky had never seen before. Maybe, finally, his world could start to come back to life.

**Author's Note:**

> Come find me on [tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/unexpected-readings-of-poetry)


End file.
